Japan Society has announced its Fall 2011/Spring 2012 Performing Arts Season, presenting works by visionary artists in the disciplines of theater, music and dance. The season kicks off in September with the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) production of Medea and continues with two not-to-be-missed music events: J-Music Ride featuring Cibo Matto & Yu Sakai (October), and Turntable Duo: Otomo Yoshihide + Christian Marclay (November) which is part of Performa 11. In January, Japan Society presents two exciting theatrical productions as part of The Public Theater's Under The Radar Festival 2012: The Bee (a co-production with the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and London's Soho Theatre) and chelfitsch Theater Company's Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech. Next in the theatrical arena comes a staged reading of Yukio Shiba's Our Planet, directed by 2010 Obie award winner Alec Duffy as part of the ongoing Play Reading Series: Contemporary Japanese Plays in English Translation (February). Spring ushers in two premier dance events: Kabuki Dance featuring the famed traditional Japanese dancer Bando Kotoji with live musicians (March), and Bessie Award winner Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug's (glowing) (April), arriving at Japan Society as part of its world premiere tour (co-commissioned by Japan Society and The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)), as well as the hotly-anticipated annual Spring open house event j-CATION, offering a full day of events, performances, workshops, food and drinks, all organized around a specific theme (last year, j-CATION was reorganized as the all-day Concert For Japan, which raised over $88,000 for the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund).
All productions and related events & workshops are detailed below.
Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC): Medea
Friday, September 23* & Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, September 25 at 5:00 PM
*followed by a members-only MetLife Meet-the-Artists Reception
Tickets: $32/$25 Japan Society members
Satoshi Miyagi, celebrated Artistic Director of SPAC and successor to the legendary director Tadashi Suzuki, reinterprets and directs the Greek masterpiece Medea as a play-within-a-play set in a late 19th-century traditional Japanese restaurant where male members of the establishment call upon the female waitresses for entertainment. Performed with live musical accompaniment, Miyagi's Medea is a visual feast comparable to a kabuki play. With his signature bunraku puppet theater-inspired style that utilizes two actors per role -- one to speak and one to move -- Miyagi reveals Euripides' tragic story through the lens of Japan's imperialist and male-dominated Meiji era. New Yorkers will finally be introduced to this stunning and internationally acclaimed production, which has traveled to 20 cities and 11 countries since its premiere in 1999. Performed in Japanese with English subtitles.
Thursday, October 20
CIBO MATTO and YU SAKAI: J-Music Ride
File Under: Rock, Pop, R&B
Doors/Bar Open at 7:00 PM
Show at 8:00 PM
$25 ($20 for Japan Society Members)
Advance, reserved seat tickets available by calling 212-715-1258
Sharp and whimsically irreverent Japanese expats Miho Hatori (vocals, drum pad) and Yuka Honda (keyboard, sampler) take the stage at Japan Society for the first time ever as the iconic duo Cibo Matto. After a considerable band hiatus, New York's acclaimed downtown duo is back and better than ever! Their charming lyrics buoy a dizzying array of sounds influenced by everything from hip-hop, jazz and rock to African and Brazilian beats.
Yu Sakai, the silky-voiced keyboardist/singer-songwriter and Japanese breakout star makes his international debut tonight at Japan Society. With R&B beats and jazz-fused J-Pop melodies, Sakai's music is an inventive blend of self-mixed instrumentation and multi-layered vocals. This Tokyo native became an overnight sensation in Japan, topping radio charts with his first single in 2009 and winning iTunes' 2010 Best J-Pop Album of the year award with his debut album. Downtown New York collides with modish Shibuya in this one-night-only music mash up. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see Cibo Matto live at the intimate, seated Japan Society auditorium.
Saturday, November 19
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE and CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: Turntable Duo
File under: Experimental, Turntablism, Improvisational Jazz
Discussion with the Artists at 5:00 PM
Doors/Bar Open at 6:30 PM
Show at 8:30 PM
Discussion: $10 ($8 for Japan Society Members)
Concert: $25 ($20 for Japan Society Members)
Discussion/Concert Combo: $30 ($24 for Japan Society Members)
Advance, reserved seat tickets available by calling 212-715-1258
Two experimental music giants, Otomo Yoshihide and Christian Marclay, perform together in New York for the first time in over a decade. Multi-media composer and visual artist, Christian Marclay, one of the world's leading artists and winner of the 54th Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award, pushed the boundaries of musical creation when he pioneered the use of the turntable as a musical instrument. Otomo Yoshihide, electroacoustic improvisation musician, free jazz guitarist and one of the most influential figures in Japan's experimental music scene, earned an international reputation as a central figure in Japan's avant-garde music scene. Together, using nothing but turntables, the pair explores the possibilities of music. Turntable Duo is presented as part of the Performa 11 biennial.
PRIOR TO THE SHOW:
A Discussion with Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide and Alan Licht: In an exploration of their artistic careers, Christian Marclay and Otomo Yoshihide are joined by musician, writer and curator Alan Licht. Together, they examine the past, present and future of avant-garde music movements in Japan, America and across the globe.
RELATED EVENTS:
Otomo Yoshihide's Installation Without Records with Records
Open Thursday, November 17 through Sunday, November 20 / FREE and open to the public
Otomo's computer operated installation - a series of empty turntables set up to produce a variety of sounds - created as an homage to Christian Marclay and exhibited at museums and galleries throughout Japan in recent years, will be on view in Japan Society's public space for New Yorkers to see and hear.
Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre / Soho Theatre, London: The Bee
Thurs, Jan. 5 at 8:45 PM / Fri, Jan. 6 & Sat, Jan. 7 at 7:00 PM / Sun, Jan. 8 at 2:30 PM
Mon, Jan. 9, Weds, Jan. 11, Thurs, Jan. 12, Fri, Jan. 13 at 7:45 PM
Sat, Jan. 14 at 7:00 PM / Sun, Jan. 15 at 2:30 PM
Tickets: $25/$20 Japan Society members
Play Reading Series: Our Planet
Monday, February 6 at 7:30 PM
Tickets: $10/$8 Japan Society members
For Japan Society's 7th presentation of the ongoing project: Play Reading - Contemporary Japanese Plays in English Translation, New York-based director Alec Duffy, Obie Award winner and founder of the critically acclaimed Hoi Polloi theater company leads a cast of American actors. This year's play is the young Japanese playwright Yukio Shiba's Our Planet, a tale that juxtaposes the minutia of an average Japanese family's life with the galactic events of the Earth's birth and death. Inspired by Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Shiba's Our Planet won the most prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 2010. For this reading, playwright Yukio Shiba joins the actors live from Japan through Japan Society's digital streaming system.
Workshop for Theater & Dance Professionals with Toshiki Okada**
In conjunction with chelfitsch Theater Company's Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech
Saturday, January 14, 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Tickets: $38/$28 Japan Society members
Visionary playwright/director/choreographer and founder of the red-hot theater company chelfitsch, Toshiki Okada leads an intensive workshop for choreographers, dancers and physical theater artists. Okada, whose award winning production Five Days in March debuted at Japan Society in 2009, has become one of the most talked-about theater artist worldwide. Okada introduces his characteristic theater techniques and everyday gesture movements of fidgets and twitches, to expand the conventional vocabularies of theater and dance.
Maximum 15 people. Performance or directing experience required.
**NOTE: Observer tickets may be available for these workshops after regular tickets have sold out.
The Body & The Native Land: Butoh & African Dance Workshops with Kota Yamazaki**
In conjunction with Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug's (glowing)
Workshop 1: Tuesday, April 24 5:30 - 8:30 PM
Workshop 2: Saturday, April 28 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Single workshop ticket: $25/$20 Japan Society members
Pass for two workshops: $45/$35 Japan Society members
New York-based butoh-trained choreographer Kota Yamazaki is joined by two dancers from Africa, Shiferaw Tariku (Ethiopia) and Marie Agnes Gomis (Senegal), for this unique pairing of workshops. In Workshop 1, Yamazaki focuses on the fundamentals of butoh while in Workshop 2, he is joined by African dancers to guide participants through The Common threads found between butoh and African dance. Inspired by the creative process of his newest work (glowing), Yamazaki offers a special opportunity to explore these dance styles and to experience his choreographic philosophy.
Max 15 people. No dance experience necessary.
**NOTE: Observer tickets may be available for these workshops after regular tickets have sold out
About Japan Society's Performing Arts Program: Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 600 of Japan's finest performing arts to an extensive American audience. Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-Edge Theater, dance and music. The Program also commissions new works, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Back Stage).
About Japan Society: Founded in 1907, Japan Society has evolved into a world-class, multidisciplinary hub for global leaders, artists, scholars, educators, and English and Japanese-speaking audiences. At the Society, more than 100 events each year feature sophisticated, topically relevant presentations of Japanese art and culture and open, critical dialogue on issues of vital
importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. An American nonprofit, nonpolitical organization, the Society cultivates a constructive, resonant and dynamic relationship between the people of the U.S. and Japan.
Tickets & Information
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F 11:00 AM-6:00 PM and Sat-Sun 11:00 AM-5:00 PM). Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First and Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E and V at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street). For tickets or more information, call the box office at 212-715-1258.
For more information call 212-832-1155 or visit http://www.japansociety.org/performingarts
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